[TheForge] Learning to weld

[Peter Fels And Phoebe Palmer]

St Phlip...just read up on the safety stuff, get a torch and 
start burning gas. Any way you cut it, it's a matter of hours put 
in. The necessary small manipulations are quick enough that only 
repetitive muscle memory will do it well...and that just takes 
enough hours doing it,to acquire.
Yes, gas is the most versatile and the closest  to, and most 
useful in blacksmithing. It offers 5000* of instant heat, exactly 
where you want it, your choice of reducing, neutral or oxidizing 
flame.
I'd be pleased to introduce you, but it's a very rough commute to 
the far left coast....where it's raining and the swell is 
pounding the rocks, tearing up the kelp beds....pf

Saint Phlip wrote:
> I'd dearly love to learn to weld, but I can't get anyone to teach me.
> My roommates keep promising, but somehow it never happens. Any of you
> guys close enough (Easter CT) and willing to teach?
> 
> I've got to admit, though, I'm most intrigued with gas welding, after
> the demo I watched (and watched, and watched) at the ABANA conference
> this summer. That man was an artist with his torch ;-)
> 
> On 12/8/06, Ron Childers <munlaw2 at hcsmail.com> wrote:
>> Dave,
>>
>> It was easy to teach my grandson to weld; in less than an hour he was
>> welding brackets with 6011 and a buzz box. The mig welder spoiled him
>> though. He is now a combat engineer in Iraq where he breaks things and
>> repairs things. The military has some neat equipment.
>>
>> The point is as Peter mentioned, he had no preconceived notions or 
>> behaviors
>> to unlearn as do us old buzzards. If you will purge your mind of
>> nonessential thought and bad karma I promise I can have you doing decent
>> stick welding on flat work in a few minutes. The out-of-position 
>> techniques
>> do take some practice, but you obviously have the coordination so you can
>> weld with anything. Yes, gas welding is alive and well, though it 
>> isn't used
>> on pipelines any more.
>>
>> Ron C
>